q9300 or e6850/8400?

[oboeguy]

Decisions, decisions. I'm upgrading from a four year old P4 so in some sense I can't go wrong. I'll be using it for lots of number crunching, NOT gaming (I have a 360 for that), some of which may or may not become highly parallelized in the next 6-12 months. I don't expect to be overclocking either -- this is going into a quiet SFF box.

Any thoughts? TIA.

Edit: FYI, like the OP in this thread, I'm a bit out of the loop.

 

[Cogman]

You might want to consider a different CPU for the dual option (8400 ect). However, for number crunching, I would recommend the quad, hands down. Most straight forward number crunching is fairly parallel (not all), which a quad would excel at.

 

[oboeguy]

Ah good idea. Title edited. Toldja I'm out of the loop! BTW, the 8400 isn't available ATM from NewEgg.

As for number crunching being parallelizable, yes, some is, but not everything. My field is mathematical programming (as in the subset of operations research) where a lot of calcs are, for lack of a better description, single threaded. Some thing like integer programming are *highly* parallel, though. I've also noticed that the new fmincon in Matlab seems to gobble-up both CPUs in a dual core machine. I wonder if it uses all four in a quad-core box?

Edit: typo.

 

[bryanW1995]

For a sff box the lower heat output of the 45nm quads will be a big benefit to you, but they're also about $100 more expensive. the lowest I've seen the Q9300 recently is $284, Q9450 has had several deals at $299, and Q6600 has been as low as $179 though usually many places offer it for $189 - $199.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
Ah good idea. Title edited. Toldja I'm out of the loop! BTW, the 8400 isn't available ATM from NewEgg.

As for number crunching being parallelizable, yes, some is, but not everything. My field is mathematical programming (as in the subset of operations research) where a lot of calcs are, for lack of a better description, single threaded. Some thing like integer programming are *highly* parallel, though. I've also noticed that the new fmincon in Matlab seems to gobble-up both CPUs in a dual core machine. I wonder if it uses all four in a quad-core box?

Edit: typo.

humm, I don't know if they would be used completely or not, but I would say the performance penalty in the non-parallel tasked would be outweighed by the performance gains of everything else. Heck, if you wanted you could be running two un-parallel (isn't there some math term for that?) programs at the same time and do different equations on them.

Plus, you aren't looking at huge losses either, especially if you go with a newer quad core (9450 looks pretty tempting to me)

 

[Pabster]

Get the Q9450 if funds allow. That said, the current pricing on the Q6600 is unbeatable. You can buy 2 (almost) for what some vendors are charging for the Q9450.

As for dual- or quad- core, I'd get the quad. Not that I'm biased... :laugh:

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Pabster
Get the Q9450 if funds allow. That said, the current pricing on the Q6600 is unbeatable. You can buy 2 (almost) for what some vendors are charging for the Q9450.

As for dual- or quad- core, I'd get the quad. Not that I'm biased... :laugh:

:thumbsup:

Also, the Q9450 is a lot harder to OC, and will hardly beat the Q6600 in OC on the same hardware.

(see sig)

 

[oboeguy]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Pabster
Get the Q9450 if funds allow. That said, the current pricing on the Q6600 is unbeatable. You can buy 2 (almost) for what some vendors are charging for the Q9450.

As for dual- or quad- core, I'd get the quad. Not that I'm biased... :laugh:

:thumbsup:

Also, the Q9450 is a lot harder to OC, and will hardly beat the Q6600 in OC on the same hardware.

(see sig)

Good to know. I don't expect to OC, to be honest. I gave up that lifestyle with my 20s.

 

[betasub]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
I don't expect to OC, to be honest. I gave up that lifestyle with my 20s.

LOL, I never thought of it as a lifestyle choice before!